The Island Concert Association

Because Music Matters

ALL CONCERTS ARE FREE AND BEGIN AT 7:30 P.M.

Tuesday February 6

Sophie Shao, Cellist

Milena Strezeva, Piano

Cellist Sophie Shao, winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, is a versatile and passionate artist whose performances the New York Times has noted as “eloquent, powerful” and the Washington Post called “deeply satisfying.”

Praised by the critics for her “technically fluid, dramatically convincing, and sonically full-bodied supportive collaborations” (Boston Globe) - Milana Strezeva is a Moldovan-American pianist. At the age of 11 she began playing chamber music with her clarinetist father and her mother, a renowned soprano. Milana's love for family collaboration eventually grew into a passionate advocacy of vocal and instrumental chamber music.

Tuesday February 13

Suchan Kim, Baritone

Laetitia Ruccolo, Piano

Suchan Kim is a lyric baritone originally hailing from South Korea. Mr. Kim recently sang the role of Papageno in Bare Opera’s sold out production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in New York City. He has performed as a resident in San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program as well as with The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Mannes Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera in Williamsburg, Bare Opera, New Amsterdam Opera, Loft Opera, Opera Ithaca, Boardwalk Opera, Sinfonietta of Riverdale, New York Grand Opera, New York Lyric Opera, Fairfield County Chorale, Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York, Sign & Sing, National Theater of Korea, Seoul Arts Center and several opera companies in South Korea

Laetitia Ruccolo has performed all over Europe and the States as a solo pianist and accompanist. In New York, she played at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She performed in concerts hosted by violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. She is one of the founding members of the companies Loft Opera and Bare Opera, and she regularly collaborates with opera companies in New York and Europe. She was a young artist at the National Opera Studio in London, where she did some residencies at the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera and Opera North Leeds..

Tuesday February 20

Seraph Brass Quintet

Seraph Brass is a dynamic brass quintet drawing from a roster of America’s top female brass players. Committed to engaging audiences with captivating programming, Seraph Brass presents a diverse body of repertoire that includes original transcriptions, newly commissioned works, and well-known classics.

Members of Seraph Brass have performed with such esteemed ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Musicians from Marlboro, the Luzern Music Festival in Switzerland, National Symphony, Brass Band of Battle Creek, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Daejeon Philharmonic in Korea, and the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand. They hold positions in the Richmond Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, Sarasota Opera Orchestra, the Artosphere Orchestra, New Chicago Brass, Tennessee Tech University, and the University of Virginia.

Tuesday February 27

Chelsea Chen, Organist

Organist and composer Chelsea Chen is internationally renowned for her concerts of “rare musicality” and “lovely lyrical grandeur,” and a compositional style that is “charming” and “irresistible” (Los Angeles Times).

Chelsea Chen has electrified audiences throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia in venues such as Singapore’s Esplanade, Hong Kong’s Cultural Centre, Kishinev’s National Organ Hall, and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. As a composer she is broadening the classical organ repertoire with her own works based on Asian folksongs.